my 14-day itinerary to visit greece in the summer

I don't think I have ever met someone who doesn't have Greece on their bucket list and it's not difficult to figure out why. The country is a traveler's dream come true! History, architecture, beautiful scenery, paradise islands, delicious food, perfect weather, what else is there to want? While I don't think it's possible to see everything there is to offer in one trip, and we definitely had some tough choices to make, I loved our Greece itinerary! 

We visited Greece in the height of summer, so our itinerary focused mainly on the islands, as being close enough to the sea at all times for a quick swim was our main objective. We also were going on a mostly budget friendly trip, so we traveled by train and ferries instead of flying from island to island.

Choosing which islands to visit was a tough decision. There are so many and they all seem to have their own specialty or unique perk. Our goal was to see as much as possible in 14 days, but we also didn't want to rush and would rather fully appreciate each destination, so we settled on 4 islands: Paros, Naxos, Santorini and Milos. The reasons we chose these 4 are: they are easily reachable by ferry from Athens and close enough from each other that we wouldn't spend too much time on a ferry from one island to the other. They also seemed to be a good mix of authentic and touristic so we knew we would be immersed in the culture, but we would still have an easy enough time without speaking the language or hiring a private transport.

Mykonos seems to be a perpetual disagreement online with half of the people saying it's a must visit and the other half saying it's a total disappointment. In the end, we decided not to visit as it is one of the more expensive islands and neither my friend and I are big into partying so we preferred putting our money elsewhere.

Now that I have explained all of our decisions, let's get into our itinerary!

Athens - day 1

We flew into Athens and arrived mid-morning. Our first day was supposed to be a simple settle-in day, where we would walk around the neighborhood of Plaka, buy some snacks, exchange money and try not to fall asleep until night-time. Thanks to Air Canada, it turned into an unwanted shopping spree, but we were thankful not to be missing out on anything since we had nothing planned for that day anyway. 

We spent the night in an Airbnb in Athens that we had reserved for two nights. For more information about Athens, you can check out this article.

meteora - day 2

On day 2, we had booked a tour to visit Meteora out of Athens. We had to be at the train station at 8 AM so we woke up extra early to take the subway to the train station, and then the train to Kalambaka (which was included in our tour), where we would board a small bus that would take us around on a guided tour of the monasteries of Meteora.

The tour was great, and I don't think we would have seen or done more if we had visited by ourselves. The heat was intense, but since we made frequent, but short stops, it wasn't a problem. We were able to enter three monasteries, but we also made multiple stops at view points so we could see the monasteries that weren't open for visits on that day (from what I understood, they rotate except for one or two that are always closed to the public).

It was a huge day, especially being jet-lagged, but the train ride gave us some time to relax. We arrived back in Athens after 10 PM and still had to take the subway back to our AirBnb and pack for our early departure the next day.

paros - days 3-4 and 5

We took an early ferry from Athens to Paros and arrived on the island at lunch time on day 3 of our trip. I loved Paros! Honestly, I would have stayed there for a whole week if I could have. It was mostly quiet, the beaches and villages were beautiful, transportation from one place to another was pretty easy compared to other islands we visited, and prices were good. It was great!

The rest of day 3 was spent taking a bus to Piso Livadi, where we were staying, spending some time at the pool, and exploring that area. Staying in Piso Livadi was a dream. The beach is nice, the village is small, but there are plenty of restaurants, the area is quiet and relaxing, just what we needed after the crazy beginning of our trip (we still didn't have suitcases by that point).

On day 4, we took the bus to Naoussa, one of the bigger towns of Paros. Naoussa is a beautiful traditional Greek-island village filled with cute oceanside restaurants, little alleyways full of fragrant flowers and little souvenir shops, terrasses with views on the bay and a small port with fishing boats. It's basically the Greek village of your dreams. We spent the morning exploring the streets and boutiques and the afternoon at the beach. The beach in Naoussa is a short walk from the main area of the village, but there are trees for shade, the water is comfortable and the waves are just big enough to rock you from side to side, plus it's a sand beach. We took the bus back to Piso Livadi for dinner and a quiet evening by the water.

On day 5, we spent the morning at the pool before grabbing the bus back to the town of Parikia to take the ferry to Naxos.

naxos - days 6 and 7

We arrived in Naxos at the end of the afternoon and had to go to the airport to collect our luggage (finally!) so we arrived at our AirBnb in Agios Prokopios in the late afternoon. We dropped off our luggage, finally changed out of the clothes we had been rotating through since we arrived in Greece, and went out for dinner along the beach and even stayed for sunset.

Agios Prokopios has one of the best beaches on Naxos, and we were so tired from the beginning of our trip that we spent all of day 6 at the beach. It was glorious! There are many beach clubs that offer lounge chairs and beach umbrellas, but there are also free sections and the sand was very comfortable. The only thing you have to know that we learned the hard way is that the ferries pass by this beach far far away, but make big waves. So about 15 minutes after the ferry is gone, there is a set of big waves that crash on the beach and will steal all of your belongings in their paths. When you see the waves coming, make sure you grab all of your stuff and carry it to safety or hold it until the waves have receded. Fortunately, it only happens once or twice a day!

On day 7, we were already leaving Naxos. We took the bus early to Naxos town and left our luggage in a locker at the port so we could explore the town for a few hours. We walked to the castle for breakfast, strolled around the streets and went to Portara for some pictures. We took the ferry in the early afternon and made our way to Santorini.

santorini - days 8-9 and 10

We arrived in late afternoon in Santorini and took the bus to our hostel in Karterados, then had a quiet evening near our hostel.

On day 8, we rented a quad bike to visit the island and went to Akrotiri and red beach, to Estate Argyros for a wine tasting, to the black beach of Perissa and to Imerovigli for sunset. I loved the visit of Akrotiri. It was super interesting and so different from what we had seen in Greece so far. The beaches of Santorini were disappointing and you can see why here, but with the heat, the swimming breaks were important. The tasting at Argyros was not cheap, but we had a private visit of the estate and winery, tasted 4 wines with their food pairings and had a great time! All in all, a full, but amazing day.

On day 9, we took the bus to Fira and then a different bus to Oia and spent the early morning exploring the streets of Oia before they got too crowded. We then went to Ammoudi Bay for a swim and came back to Oia to buy some food and find a great spot for sunset.

On day 10, we lounged by the pool all morning and then took the bus back to the ferry port to go to Milos.

For all the information on Santorini, check out this article.

milos - days 11-12 and 13

We arrived in Milos just in time for dinner and made our way to our hotel in Pollonia.

On day 11, we had purchased tickets for a full day boat tour and I have no regrets! That was probably my favorite day of the whole trip! You can check out this article for the full information.

On day 12, we visited a bunch of beaches on Milos. Honestly, after the beaches we had seen the day before on the boat tour, I guess my expectations were high, but I wasn't impressed by the beaches on the North side of Milos. Sarakiniko was pretty, but the water was gross and even Papafragas was pretty, but had a lot of trash. It was still a good day and we did manage to find a few places to go for a swim. Having some kind of transportation and not having to rely on buses would have been a godsend on that day though!

​On day 13, we relaxed at the beach for the last time and made our way to the ferry port in Adamas to go back to Athens.

athens - day 14

We arrived in Athens pretty late and took the subway to our second AirBnb.

On day 14, we visited the Acropolis early in the morning as they had closed it in the afternoons because of the heat the last few days and we didn't want to miss our chance. We spent the afternoon at the Acropolis museum which was great and air conditioned, and spent the evening walking around Plaka before having dinner on a terrasse with a view of the Acropolis. A wonderful last day in Greece!

what you need to know before building your itinerary

1. Ferry days are a lot! The days where we were taking the ferry from one island to the next took a lot out of us. We had to pack everything, take an early bus to the ferry terminal in case the bus would be late or full, carry all of our luggage in the heat, wait up to an hour for the ferry in the shade, but no wind or air conditioning so it was HOT, climb aboard the ferry at the same time as 100 other passengers or more that were pushing us around, go to the back of the ferry to put our luggage away, fight the hordes of people back to the front of the ferry to show our ticket and climb to the upper levels, find a seat, freeze in the air conditioning for up to 3 hours and then do everything in reverse once we docked. Greek ferries equal craziness. People bring enormous quantities of luggage, the employees are yelling left and right, people have crying kids and strollers that they need to carry in their arms up the stairs once they get on the ferry, they sell more tickets than there are places on board, it is a zoo. Going back, I would visit less islands and spend more time actually enjoying the ones we were visiting. I enjoyed every island we visited, but the ferry days were a pain and I feel like we wasted so much time in transit.

2. Your budget will make your comfort level vary a lot. Greece is definitely possible on a budget, especially if you travel during low or shoulder season. But I'm not going to lie, there is a large difference between staying in a caldera villa with a pool in Santorini and staying in a hostel in a smaller village. There is a large difference between paying for taxis everywhere or hiring a driver, and taking public transportation everywhere. If I was planning this trip again, I would lower my expectations about the amount of things we could do, especially using public transportation, which was unreliable on some islands or ran only a handful of times everyday. Switching islands less would also have lowered our frustration at waiting for the bus with our luggage in the heat.

All in all, I adored my trip to Greece. It is one of the most beautiful destinations I have visited so far and I would go back without hesitation. The boat tour of Milos and the town of Naoussa were two of my favorites on this trip, but there are so many beautiful places to see in Greece and so many interesting things to do that anyone will find something to their liking. Learn from my mistakes and don't think you can do it all, but enjoy every moment spent in this gem of a country.

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